Lived experience of people who stutter: a descriptive review of qualitative studies from 1990–2017

Abstract

Since the 1970s, research has illuminated the personal and social dimensions of the experience of stuttering in the discipline of speech-language pathology. However, the disabling experiences of individuals who stutter remain underrepresented within the body of scholarship. We searched for articles published in English, between 1990/01/01 and 2017/12/31, in the Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus, PsychInfo and PsychArticles databases. After screening, 31 full text articles met the criteria for inclusion. Five themes emerged: implementation context, theories and methods, population, definitions of stuttering and areas of research. This descriptive review lays the groundwork for future disability research in the context of the lived experience of people who stutter.

Points of interest

• Over the last four decades, there has been increased interest in the personal and social experience of people who stutter.

• However, limited research has explored the disabling experiences of people who stutter.

• We present a review in order to illuminate the trends and patterns in the current body of qualitative research.

• We found that various aspects of the experience of people who stutter were explored using different approaches and methods.

• This descriptive review identifies opportunities for further development of the field and lays the groundwork for future disability research in the context of the experiences of people who stutter, taking account of other aspects of their identities such as gender, race and age.

Keywords:

• descriptive literature review
• lived experience
• qualitative studies
• people who stutter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (South Africa).